Non-Boarding Guests

Through word-of-mouth, newspaper articles, magazine features, and citations in tourist guide books, the story of the Griswold boardinghouse where bohemian artists painted directly on the doors and walls began to spread. Such publicity brought tourists and townspeople to the boardinghouse where Miss Florence provided tours of the painted panels while sharing stories about the artists. She would eventually take advantage of the attraction and transform the center hall into a makeshift art and antique gallery and sell both new paintings created by her boarders, as well as New England collectibles to those passing through.

“Every stranger within the gates of Lyme wants to see it – and to see it is to admire it.”

~ Journalist H.S. Adams, 1914

The Lyme Summer School offered classes to art students as early as 1894, however, the newfound artistic status of Old Lyme in the new century because of the art colony drew more students to the area. Likewise, the success of Lyme scenes in the marketplace made the local subject matter highly desirable for budding artists.

“I heard yesterday from Mr. Browning who is going to Lyme with his wife and who is to receive my assistance this summer — is very anxious to have you accommodate him. It is a somewhat delicate matter for me to speak of for Mr. B is a charming man — but I should prefer not to have to see him at every meal — as he is ‘studying’ art.”

~ Artist Willard Metcalf (in a letter to Miss Florence), 1905

“But there is more even than food and stories in that dining room. Its paneled walls and doors are gay with paintings representing the work of the various artists who, at one time and another, dwelt beneath that hospitable roof. Visitors to Lyme make adoring pilgrimages to Miss Florence’s house to see these walls and the painted doors throughout the fine old mansion.”

~ Journalist Alice Lawton in American Motorists, 1928

“One of the distinctive features of Lyme is the art students. Nowhere on its hills and dales can one be sure of finding secret sanctuary. With umbrella and easel they seem to grow on meadow or hill, in the wooded paths or rocky slopes.”

~ Journalist Anthony H. Euwer, 1904

Although these students were not permitted to rent a room in the boardinghouse, on rare occasions they did take meals in the dining room. One newspaper account offers a hopeful student’s view on their denied access: “On passing the ‘Holy House’ we students bow in mock humility, each of us secretly hoping that some day we would be of enough importance . . . to be a resident there.”

 “The painters who have been setting up their easels in and about Lyme these several years past are not in all cases overjoyed to have their haunts invaded by beginners, but for the obvious reasons there is nothing to be said.”

~ Unidentified Author in the New York Times, 1904

Meet the people of the boardinghouse by clicking choices below:

• Overview
• Miss Florence
• The Artists
• Distinguished Guests
• Domestic Staff
• Female Artists
• Non-Boarding Guests